Changing Gears
Haven't slept yet and at work right now. I'm actually sneaking this article in since browsing the net for leisure is not allowed while at work.
(Currently working here at MS Xbox360 Live)
Years passed and I enjoyed the company of my Desktop Rig "Amy". She's a a gaming rig during her time that allowed me to play RF Online, Need for Speed Underground 1 - 2, learn programming language (JAVA (UNIX as well), C++,VB,C#), Lightwave 3D, Flash, Web Dev, Video Editing etc.She was also there when my first laptop crashed and needs backing up.
But as the saying goes... "All good things come must and will come to an end". A few months ago "Amy already showed signs of dreaded fatigue. Before she can go 24/7 without worries but now she is having a hard time. She is also experiencing excessive memory usage whenever I use my programs and hard time loading up youtube videos. Some might say she had or has a virus but that's not the case since I already reformatted her, gave her a new memory but still the same issue. A few days ago, she even had a hard time booting up. That's the time that I realized that she's at her limit. Been a long 5 and half years that we've been together and she's done so much already. It's high time I do something for her. I was able to acquire a new processor, Intel 7400 Core2Duo (LGA775) (she's running on intel celeron (R) at the moment ) and I'll place it on her and give her less load this time.
How will I give her less load? A few hours ago I was able to acquire her lilttle sister! Her name is Lynette Bishop ( no connection to Strike Witches. I Haven't watched a single episode of it but I do know there is a Lynette Bishop there too ).
Her specs are as follows:
Processor: AMD Phenom II X2 555 Black Edition 3.2Ghz
Motherboard: Asrock 880GM-LE
Graphics Card: PowerColor ATI Radeon HD4650 1GB DDR3, 128bit PCI-E HDMI Support(Port) Ready
HDD: 500GB Westerd Digital Sata3
Memory: 4GB Emaxx 4GB DDR3 1333MHz
Optical Drive: Asus 24B1Lt/B+ 24x Sata Lightscribe
Chassis: NZXT Lexa S
Power Supply: (forgot the brand but it's a 700W Power Supply)
Lynette runs on the said processor which can be tuned to a 4 core turning her into a AMD Phenom II X4 555 Black Edition. (Which I already did.) You can say she can go Super Saiyan!
Another bonus of her is the special capability to be tuned for Liquid Cooling all thanks to the capabilities of the NZXT Lexa S.
The NZXT Lexa S is an ATX Mid Tower Chassis that holds tons of features At the current time she uses the following cooling items:
1 x 120mm front fan
1 x 120mm side LED fan
1 x 120mm rear fan
1 x 140mm top fan
Fans can be controlled to regulate airflow for better cooling experience. lastly she's running in Win7 (wanted snow leopard but i'll do that in a later time. )That said, Lynette is the rig that will accompany me in GuildWars 2. As for Amy, she'll be used to manage tasks for work, small projects and minor image editing as well as file gathering. In anycase, this is the biggest purchase that i've done for the month and i'll be posting accurate images of Lynette in a later time (after the work-hell week is over).
Nice CPU box..Ow nice ^Y^
So are you gonna get liquid cooling? radeon 4650 is decent but i doubt youll be pushing hardcore settings on games.
Actually I can do hardcore gaming. I've seen what 4650 can do. Also the biggest test here will be if it can run Guildwars 2 in full blast. if it doesn't then i'm off to buy a new card. As to why I settled for this video card is the budget that I have at the moment.
But in anycase, I do know the video card well to the point wherein I know it's limitations.
Radeon 4650 is decent with your run in the mill games played locally (or MMOs) but that'd choke and sputter trying to max out the current games, even more so if you trun on the AA and AF.
Nope, it can actually run MW2 as well as L4D 1 & 2 max. Not to mention we've tested with NFS Hot Pursuit and Lost Planet 3 and so far so good! I guess the success of it is all due to the processor being 4 cores and also OC'd video card.
( The build was tested first before another was bought, overall 2 units were built. 1 for me and another with a tech friend )
When I say current games I mean the newest ones.. Y'know Dead Space 2, Crysis 2, CoD: Black Ops and the bunch. The ones you mentioned are 2 - 3 year old games xD
Did you turn anisotropic filthering and anti-aliasing on?
Yes they are. but check my post below for further info about the limit.
Forgot to say..
You planning on doing a Crossfire setup soon? Cos srsly 700w is a lot of juice for yer setup unless you are going with Crossfire.
That case looks like my NZXT Apollo.
Cool. I wixh I could have that
Nice gear but that video card needs to go. You can get a HD5000 card for just a few bucks more that will be much better.
windows-chan?
I think so too. That 4 coloured hairpin looks familiar...hehe :P